No adrenilline today!
Dec. 6th, 2003 05:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
callistotoniWell, I managed to have a perfectly calm day at the barn. Yea! I've broken my streak! *And* I got to have a practice ride on Jokie so he'd get some exercise, since the person who leases him is sick.
I suppose, since I'm writing anyway, I should do a lesson report.
Friday I rode Shammy. Deb told me that she needed to start another lesson right at 5:00PM, so that I needed to be mounted and ready to go a bit earlier than normal. Since that meant that I had Shammy ready before Deb was done training the evil Mai Tai, I got practice mounting and warming up Shammy by myself. Going into the lesson I had decided that I needed to work on trotting faster, so that I could get used to it. I also focused the entire lesson on keeping my new postion (described previously).
The big news is that we are going to start focusing on cantering next Friday, i.e. the next time I'll be riding Shammy. (As I've mentioned before, for a variety of reasons cantering on Jokie is not happening.) After doing a warm-up at trot, making circles and 3 and 4 loop serpentines, Deb asked my if I wanted to try cantering. Since I didn't feel like I had done that well at the trot, and the lesson had just started, I hemmed and hawed about this. Deb then asked me if it would help if I watched her canter Shammy to see what he was like. I said sure. Well, it turns out that Shammy has a pretty fast canter. No surprise, given that he likes to move. When I hesitated we decided to work this lesson some more at the extended trot so that I could feel more confident moving fast(er). Deb also decided that from here on out I'd have to earn my lateral work time with canter time -- she likened it to being a little kid who doesn't get dessert until they finish their dinner :-) .
Now, I'm being a weenie, I know, but there is some logic behind this. Last time I cantered it was great, but the horse (Shamrock, at Garrods) was a good boy and had a nice slow canter. At a slower pace, it is easier to recover if things start to go wrong. Faster, and there is less opportunity to recover. But Shammy is the only horse available to canter on, so I'm going to have to suck up and deal, fast canter or no.
Did some head to the wall and tail to the wall, which went sell. Spent much of the lesson working on transitioning between extended trot and compression. Shammy is not as responsive to compression as Jokie, so this did not start very well, but it got much better as time went on. Deb really had to grump at me for sitting too soon--I need to get the compression going well first and *then* sit the trot. It is hard to compress and not sit, especially when Shammy doesn't listen. But in reality, it just makes it worse. This is a case where one has to overcome one's instinct to do the correct thing, and I was struggling to overcome. But it did eventually get better.
After the lesson I hung around because I knew traffic was going to be at a standstill. So I got to watch 2 lessons, including the nice German gal on Shammy. One thing I noticed that I'm trying to remember was where she had her hands, which was almost in her lap. I thought this was good, because I tend to shorten my reins until I'm too far forward.
Today at the barn things were really low key. Tacked up Deb's 4 yo TB first, who was crabby but pretty relaxed. Funny, Haley was really freindly and sweet until I put the saddle on her, then she started pinning her ears and being crabby at me. I think she's tired of the arena and wants to do something fun, like jump. Deb said horses can feel the difference between saddles, and Haley knows the difference between her dressage and jumping saddles.
The only other horse was the little arab, and she was pretty good today.
Then I got to ride Jokie so he could get some work. Deb was around putting the arab away, and then left about 15 min before I was done. Another instructor was in the arena with a little girl, so I was not alone. My focus on Jokie was to get good pacing out of him, and to practice my new position. I worked on turning to my left more than my right, because that is my problematic side. Tried to keep aligned and *not* twist my body. Did head to the wall and tail to the wall in both directions. Tried to do the scalloped circle, but when I'd change Jokie's bend to the non-standard way (i.e. to the inside), Jokie started cutting in, and I never did figure out how to correct successfuly.
I must have also trotted a lot, because I got *really* tired, and Jokie was acting pretty tired by the end as well. Mostly I worked on extending and compression. The problem I had with Jokie was compressing too much (probably influenced by my ride the night before on Shammy). But by the end I thought I did pretty well, and sat the compressed trot around half of the arena a couple of times.
A humble observation: As I had my practice ride, there were two Moms in the arena watching thier respective daughters have a lesson. At the end I thought I heard them comment that I was "really good". Also, at the end they commented to me that Jokie seemed to have a bouncy trot. Now, in compression, it is a good thing if the trot gets bouncy, because it means the horse has suspension (i.e. they spend more time in the air). Now, I don't really know if that's what they say, but my ego hopes so. However, I really think that the English Riding Uniform gets you a long way. Put on breaches and boots and half chaps, carry a dressage whip, and get on a horse that knows what its doing and You Too can look like a Good Rider to the man on the street. ;-) .
Falzalot, you have a lot to look forward to--Jokie is Faboo! :-)
I suppose, since I'm writing anyway, I should do a lesson report.
Friday I rode Shammy. Deb told me that she needed to start another lesson right at 5:00PM, so that I needed to be mounted and ready to go a bit earlier than normal. Since that meant that I had Shammy ready before Deb was done training the evil Mai Tai, I got practice mounting and warming up Shammy by myself. Going into the lesson I had decided that I needed to work on trotting faster, so that I could get used to it. I also focused the entire lesson on keeping my new postion (described previously).
The big news is that we are going to start focusing on cantering next Friday, i.e. the next time I'll be riding Shammy. (As I've mentioned before, for a variety of reasons cantering on Jokie is not happening.) After doing a warm-up at trot, making circles and 3 and 4 loop serpentines, Deb asked my if I wanted to try cantering. Since I didn't feel like I had done that well at the trot, and the lesson had just started, I hemmed and hawed about this. Deb then asked me if it would help if I watched her canter Shammy to see what he was like. I said sure. Well, it turns out that Shammy has a pretty fast canter. No surprise, given that he likes to move. When I hesitated we decided to work this lesson some more at the extended trot so that I could feel more confident moving fast(er). Deb also decided that from here on out I'd have to earn my lateral work time with canter time -- she likened it to being a little kid who doesn't get dessert until they finish their dinner :-) .
Now, I'm being a weenie, I know, but there is some logic behind this. Last time I cantered it was great, but the horse (Shamrock, at Garrods) was a good boy and had a nice slow canter. At a slower pace, it is easier to recover if things start to go wrong. Faster, and there is less opportunity to recover. But Shammy is the only horse available to canter on, so I'm going to have to suck up and deal, fast canter or no.
Did some head to the wall and tail to the wall, which went sell. Spent much of the lesson working on transitioning between extended trot and compression. Shammy is not as responsive to compression as Jokie, so this did not start very well, but it got much better as time went on. Deb really had to grump at me for sitting too soon--I need to get the compression going well first and *then* sit the trot. It is hard to compress and not sit, especially when Shammy doesn't listen. But in reality, it just makes it worse. This is a case where one has to overcome one's instinct to do the correct thing, and I was struggling to overcome. But it did eventually get better.
After the lesson I hung around because I knew traffic was going to be at a standstill. So I got to watch 2 lessons, including the nice German gal on Shammy. One thing I noticed that I'm trying to remember was where she had her hands, which was almost in her lap. I thought this was good, because I tend to shorten my reins until I'm too far forward.
Today at the barn things were really low key. Tacked up Deb's 4 yo TB first, who was crabby but pretty relaxed. Funny, Haley was really freindly and sweet until I put the saddle on her, then she started pinning her ears and being crabby at me. I think she's tired of the arena and wants to do something fun, like jump. Deb said horses can feel the difference between saddles, and Haley knows the difference between her dressage and jumping saddles.
The only other horse was the little arab, and she was pretty good today.
Then I got to ride Jokie so he could get some work. Deb was around putting the arab away, and then left about 15 min before I was done. Another instructor was in the arena with a little girl, so I was not alone. My focus on Jokie was to get good pacing out of him, and to practice my new position. I worked on turning to my left more than my right, because that is my problematic side. Tried to keep aligned and *not* twist my body. Did head to the wall and tail to the wall in both directions. Tried to do the scalloped circle, but when I'd change Jokie's bend to the non-standard way (i.e. to the inside), Jokie started cutting in, and I never did figure out how to correct successfuly.
I must have also trotted a lot, because I got *really* tired, and Jokie was acting pretty tired by the end as well. Mostly I worked on extending and compression. The problem I had with Jokie was compressing too much (probably influenced by my ride the night before on Shammy). But by the end I thought I did pretty well, and sat the compressed trot around half of the arena a couple of times.
A humble observation: As I had my practice ride, there were two Moms in the arena watching thier respective daughters have a lesson. At the end I thought I heard them comment that I was "really good". Also, at the end they commented to me that Jokie seemed to have a bouncy trot. Now, in compression, it is a good thing if the trot gets bouncy, because it means the horse has suspension (i.e. they spend more time in the air). Now, I don't really know if that's what they say, but my ego hopes so. However, I really think that the English Riding Uniform gets you a long way. Put on breaches and boots and half chaps, carry a dressage whip, and get on a horse that knows what its doing and You Too can look like a Good Rider to the man on the street. ;-) .
Falzalot, you have a lot to look forward to--Jokie is Faboo! :-)
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Date: 2003-12-07 09:10 am (UTC)And yes, I'm actually going to have a lesson on Tuesday -- I need to call her and double check her availability, but my lungs are mostly under control (with 3 inhalers!) and my sinuses seem to be getting there, so as long as I don't spend the entire lesson trotting I should be okay. :-)